De Nile is just a river in Egypt

On Saturday morning after flying from Cairo to Luxor we were picked up and taken to our Nile cruise. There are apparently more than 350 large ships making the trek back and forth between Luxor and Aswan. At the height of tourist season the river can be pretty packed.

Our ships name was the Jasmin, like in the flower and not Aladdin’s girlfriend. The boat is quite large and designed to carry more than 80 passengers, plus a large complement of staff. Christine and I have managed thus far on our vacation to avoid doing any tours with large groups. In Cairo we thought we were going to be on a bus tour and were happy to have only the two of us with a van, driver and guide. On the large ship we thought that our luck had finally run out. However, when we arrived on the ship we found out that there were only 6 passengers, us and 2 Egyptian couples. One of the couples was not very interested in sight seeing and just the cruise, so often it was just Christine, myself, one Egyptian couple and our guide on the tours. (Left - our boat the Jasmin)

The ship is so large and with so few people on it, it almost feels like a ghost ship. The staff to customer ratio is about 4 to 1 and at meals we have at least 2 personal attendants just staring at us, waiting to take our plate or get us something to drink. We made the mistake of tipping a few people early on before our guide told us to give one tip at the end to be distributed. This resulted in pretty much every employee on the ship trying to give us special service for a tip. At some points we had 4 personal waiters serving us and the barman keeps trying to get us to hang out at the bar. It was definitely a unique cruise experience.

Our first day in Luxor took us to Karnak Temple, which is an absolutely amazing complex. It was built more than 3000 years ago and after it was completed each new pharaoh tried to add something spectacular to try and leave their mark on it. The structure is incredible in size and the carvings cover the surface of everything. Giant pillars spill out in all directions and multiple temples have been built on the one site. Following this we visited the Luxor temple, which is less grand in scale, but still amazingly ornate. A double line of sphinx mark an ancient roadway for approximately 3 kilometres between the two temples. (Right - Sphinxes at the entrance of Luxor Temple)

On Sunday we took a tour of the Valley of the Kings. This is the location of what appears to be more than 50 burials tombs for pharaohs. Apparently there are other valleys for Queens, scribes, priests and so on, but obviously the pharaoh’s is the most spectacular. It’s here that Tutankhamen and Ramses II are buried. The burial sites were a design of the New Kingdom which was still over 3000 years ago and was in response to all the pyramid grave robbings. They were supposed to be a new, more secure design.

We managed to visit three tombs, each bigger and better than the last. The last tomb belonged to Ramses III who was considered the final great Pharaoh of Egypt. There were many that came after him, but each presided over an increasingly shrinking and weaker kingdom. Ramses tomb was beautifully carved, with the paintings on the wall still in full colour and fairly bright. The tomb leads fairly deep into the earth and has quite a nice wide passageway down to his final resting place. The builders used giant mirrors made of silver to reflect the sunlight down the chamber as they did their chiseling and painting. Unfortunately they don't allow photos in the tombs, so we don't have any to show you.

Something both fascinating and quite funny is the development of the first graffiti in Egypt. Back before the Roman empire adopted Christianity they were seriously into persecuting and killing Christians. Early Christians in Egypt took refuge in the pharaohs tombs to escape death. While down there they did drawings of Jesus, apostles and other Christian writings. So we are talking about graffiti that is almost 2000 years old.

Following the Valley, we moved on to see the temple of Hatshepsut, a great and powerful Queen of Egypt. When the pharaoh died, she managed to hold power from her step son who was nine years old, the next pharaoh in line to the throne. She built a great many things, including a massive temple that had an underground cave leading to her burial chamber in the Valley of the Kings. She tried to pass her self off as the child of a god and made imagery that had her appear as a man. She engaged a lot of tricks and manipulation to stay in power and ruled to the end of her life. When her step son came to power he damaged and removed a lot of the work she built in her image to get even with her for withholding the throne from him. (Left - Temple of Hatshepsut).

That afternoon we set sail further down the river and Christine and I enjoyed a relaxing afternoon reclining on the deck chairs pool side. The view was very pleasant cruising down the river with the scenery slowly rolling by. The Nile is amazing as the life blood of Egypt and it is clear to see how dependant the country is on it. All along it’s banks are irrigation pipes and the land is green and fertile along the shore. Often though, to look 30 feet beyond the river bank and the landscape shifts instantly from fertile green to sandy desert. The width of the greenery is dependant on the farmers and their irrigation, but it never seemed to stretch very far from the river. (Right - Relaxing on the boat).

We never seemed to lack activities on the boat between the tours, lazing about and eating. There were pool tables, ping pong tables, board games, books, TV, a swimming pool, nghtly activities and much more. They tried to get some cocktail parties and dance parties going, but it’s difficult when Christine and I show up and we are the only party guests. I guess that is one downside to having such an empty boat. (Left - The River Nile)

On Monday we stopped in Edfu to visit a temple dedicated to the god Horace, who is the son of Isis and Osiris. The spectacular temples continued, but we were starting to get used to the style. It seems that every pharaoh who builds a temple spends most of the wall space sucking up to the gods. They carve images of giving offerings to the gods, bringing their enemies before them, bowing before them, dancing and so on. Even though a temple may be dedicated to one god, they still throw in images of most of the other big ones, probably trying not to offend any of them. (Right - Carvings etched in the temple. The figure on the left is Horace).

After Edfu we sailed further down the Nile to Kom-Ombo to visit another temple dedicated to other gods. By now the temples are starting to be from the Ptolemaic era and are after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. The new rulers still maintained strong links to the Egyptian gods and started mixing it with their own religion. (Left - Sun setting over the river).

At one point along our journey we had to pass through a lock. The lock was just the right size for our ship, so I guess they are built to the specs of the lock, as a bigger ship would not be able to get through. The system was remarkable and we rose about 30-40 feet in only a few minutes and were steaming our way up the Nile once more. A very cool and efficient system.

On Tuesday we arrived at Aswan, the final destination in our boat trip. Our first tour took us to the High Dam, which is a very large superstructure providing much of the power to Egypt. The Dam is very large and has created a lake over 6000 square kilometers in size. The lake is 500 kilometres long and about 150 of that stretches past the Egyptian border into Sudan. I wonder if the Egyptians asked the Sudanese for permission before creating a huge lake in their country. The dam was built with major Soviet assistance and was to bring the USSR and Egypt closer together. Apparently if it were to break, most of Egypt would be washed away and after seeing the size of the lake and the fact that the majority of the population lives in a long stretch down the Nile River, it seems believable. (Right - Hovan at the Aswan Dam).

After the high dam we visited the temple of Phillae. The temple itself is really nice, but what makes it unique is that it was completely relocated to an island in the dam made lake after it was flooded over. Divers dredged the whole site from the bottom of a lake and relocated to an adjacent new island. This is an incredible project and took 10 years to complete. Christine and I thought it would be funny if some of the massive stones were mislabeled. It may have led to the discovery of “new gods” with different heads on different bodies. (Left - Hovan at the temple of Phillae).

Following the temple we visited the site where granite was carved into stone statues and then shipped down the river to different temples. The last obelisk is left standing there and it is 40 metres in length, weighing 1000 tons. To this day they still have no idea how the ancient Egyptians managed to get the stones down to the river, into the temple and then erected. (Right - the unfinished obelisk).

In the afternoon we enjoyed a tranquil falouka ride down the Nile. The boats are a transportation vessel and could carry up to 10 or 12 people comfortably, and they had a unique shaped sail. The ride was a pleasant couple of hours as we traveled downwind to visit a couple of islands, see a few sites and just relax. We were joined on the trip by our 2 fellow Egyptian couples. On our way back the wind died and so the captain of the boat had to get out the oars and row casually for about a half an hour to get us back to shore. (Left - A Felucca sailing down the river).

Our next stop is to spend 2 and 1/2 days relaxing in the sun at Sharm El-Sheik which is apparently some kind of beach resort for locals and foreigners. After that we start to make our way back to Canada via Cairo and Amsterdam and the trip home will take a couple of days.

The best of the season,

Christine and Hovan

Armeni Jewelers

Just a reminder that Hovan's family store Armeni Jewelers in Victoria has great Christmas gifts! Also, if you haven't already, there is a great article in the TC about them:

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Jewelry+shop+proud+history/2297521/story.html

Cheers,

Hovan & Christine

The great Alexandria

On Wednesday morning we were picked up at the hotel to be taken to Alexandria. On our way out of Cairo we went past the Giza pyramids once again, and they really do stand out against the sky-line. From a number of directions the first two (father and son) are really prominent. The Grandsons is almost as big as the other two, but because it is in a bit of a dip in the landscape, it’s usually pretty hard to spot.

Above - the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria

One of the interesting things that we noticed about Egypt is the driving system. They have these legal u-turns every couple of kilometers and the driver needs to go down, do a u-turn, drive back, turn right, do another u-turn and so to eventually get to the destination. There are no turns allowed at intersections. Egyptians also seem to have a strong aversion to seat belts, and they only seem to buckle up when passing police, before unclipping. When Christine asked about this they don’t seem fond and one person actually explained that it was unsafe to wear a seat belt. They of course cited nothing scientific, but merely the “Egyptian mindset”.

The country is also almost entirely Muslim and I believe that I read somewhere approximately 95% of the population is Muslim. Interestingly our drivers name is Islam and our guide/caretaker is Mohamed. I don’t think you could find any names more Muslim than that. Everywhere we go almost every single woman has her head covered, with the clear exception of my darling fair haired wife. Interestingly no one seems to care or even give a second glance at us. This city gets way too many tourists for anyone to be interested in us. Also, my beard and modest tan make me look like I could be a fair Egyptian so some think I am local. This is challenging when I say hello in Arabic and they start chatting with me rapidly in the language and I haven’t a clue what they are saying.

Five times a day we hear the call to prayer from the minarets which are all over the city and country. We have even seen mosques in the middle of nowhere with a minaret to call people to prayer, but there is no one around. I guess they are available for the occasional traveler on the road when prayer time happens.

One of the biggest challenges that Christine is experiencing here is that she is often ignored in conversations and men will focus on me almost to her exclusion. She has been frustrated a number of times when she feels like they don’t even acknowledge that she is there. We try to get her to pay as often and express our decisions so they get a sense that we have an equal relationship, but it is difficult none the less.

The drive to Alexandria was only a couple of hours since the highway was clear and traffic is light when it is not the summer time. Alexandria itself is the second largest city in Egypt with about 5 million people and is home to the largest port in the country. Alexandria was built in about 332 BC by Alexander the Great after he somewhat peacefully took over Egypt from the Persian Empire. The Egyptians apparently were very happy about his defeat of the Persians and take over of Egypt as he was known to be supportive of local religions. When Alexander discovered the spot that would Alexandria there was only a small island and insignificant fishing village. He determined to make the city the seat of his Eastern empire. The city is famous for the ancient Library of Alexandria which is one of the ancient 7 Wonders of the World. Unfortunately the library was destroyed during the lengthy Roman occupation of Egypt. (Right - the city of Alexandria).

After arriving in the city in the afternoon we were dropped off at our hotel, in what turned out to be a very large complex. The complex has almost 400 shops, a large 24 hour grocery store and a 10 screen movie theatre. After spending a relaxing afternoon wandering around, we decided to take in a film. Now anyone who knows me knows how much I love movies and particularly movie theatres (which I get from my dad). This was the first time we went to the movies in almost 4 months, which is probably the longest stretch I have ever gone since I was a teenager. We saw the show 2012, which was a lot of fun and entertaining, on the edge of your seat, thrill a moment scenes.

Thursday morning we were picked up by Mohammed, Islam and our tour guide Mara. The day was interesting because she did not really address me directly and rarely would she look at me unless I was asking her a direct question. Her focus was almost exclusively on Christine, which was a bit of a role reversal to what has usually happened. It was nice for Christine not to be completely ignored.

Mara took us on a tour of some of the city’s famous sites and our first stop was at some catacombs that were built during the Roman times. They were chiseled out of the rock about 100 feet underground and originally designed to house the family of a rich merchant. The design and architecture was an incredible mixture of Egyptian, Roman, and Greek and they were all interwoven seamlessly throughout the structure. At one point in time the building was made public and spaces were carved for an additional 400 tombs, which greatly expanded the space, but did not add much additional artistry.

The tomb was apparently covered over and forgotten about until the early 1900’s when a French archaeologist was passing by and his donkeys hoof fell through the ground. After he extricated the hoof he went on to discover the catacombs. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures down here, so Christine doesn’t have any shots that she can share with all of you.

Following the catacombs we visited Pompey’s Pillar. As some of you may know Pompey was one of the three members of the ruling triumvirate of Rome. One of the other members on this panel was a man called Julius Caesar (perhaps you’ve heard of him). Of course old Jules couldn’t add the title Caesar to his name until he took care of his pesky compatriots and Pompey managed to escape to Egypt before he was hunted down and killed. (Left - Pompey's Pillar)

Incidentally the pillar was not built by Pompey or where he died and I am not quite sure why it was name after him. The pillar is magnificent at 27 metres high and built on the highest point of Alexandria. It is once the site of an Egyptian temple that was demolished and where a Roman temple was then built and demolished and finally a Christian church was built until an earthquake knocked it down. In the end only the pillar and couple of sphinx statues remain. The pillar was actually one of a hundred, but the others were all broken off and cast into the sea as ancient mines or a barricade against the Roman naval fleet. The governor of the city couldn’t bring himself to take down the largest and most magnificent pillar, and so there it stands all alone. (Right - Pompey's Pillar)

Following the pillar we visited an old Roman amphitheatre. The acoustics in the 800 seat theatre was amazing and that without the roof. The architecture around the theatre is simple but beautiful and they engaged white marble, green marble and granite in it’s construction. Apparently the theatre was once buried under garbage and it was until recently that the garbage was moved out of the city centre and it was discovered. Today, modern singers give performances in the summer at the same location. (Left - Roman amphitheatre)

Our final stop of the day was at a large green space that was once the gardens for the king and spanned 372 acres. There were two castles built, one that is now a hotel and the other that is a presidential palace. The castle was built in the 1930’s and has a very new and modern feel to it that isn’t experienced by the castles in Europe. The castle is built right on the Mediterranean Sea and has a magnificent view. (Right - Presidential Palace)

Today was a pretty low key day as we drove back into the city. We spent the afternoon doing a bit of shopping, browsing and relaxing. Tomorrow we are being picked up early for our flight to Luxor, which is where the Valley of Kings is. From there we start a 4 day boat trip down the Nile and will be out of contact for that time. We end our trip down the Nile at the Aswan dam and hopefully we will be in touch after that. (Left - Kings Gardens).

Best Wishes,

Christine and Hovan

The Land of the Pharoahs

We returned to Nairobi after an amazing week on safari, and enjoyed a couple of days in relaxation and the luxury of Tim and Lisa’s place. We quickly settled in to our regular routine of relaxing on the porch, eating everyone’s delicious food and enjoying Kenyan hospitality. Right- Hovan, myself, Sherene, Chris and their daughter Amaya. Photo courtesy of Chris.)

On Friday we decided to head to the Maasai Market that happens once a week to check out all the artisan goods. We spent a good deal of time wandering through the space until I found some great ebony carvings. After purchasing them and a few other goods we had to haul everything down to the car, in doing so we realized just how heavy ebony is. When we had a chance to weigh it, it came in at 58 pounds worth of carvings. Thankfully the entire Rosslyn Academy seemed to pull together to help get them home for us since shipping would have run about $600+. (Left - Tim & Lisa's house)

We were also treated to a Christmas choral performance at the academy that was done really well. There were mixtures of hand bell performances, primary school children, secondary and even and adult choir. The performance was for Christmas and it reminded us of the upcoming season, maybe even making us a little homesick.

On Saturday we enjoyed a great day on campus and spent a lot of it playing with Max and Simon and Chris and Sherene. I spent the morning getting run ragged by a couple of young men, but I managed to hold my own in basketball, tennis, ping pong and water sports. Christine was instrumental in winning the water sports, but Max and Simon may disagree. (Right - Hovan getting whopped at ping pong).

That evening we went out on the town with Chris and Sherene and Tim and Lisa to enjoy a delicious Japanese meal. Japanese food is one of Christine and my favourites and this restaurant was particularly good. The restaurant belonged to one of the parents of Chris’s students and they treated us to a massive plate of complimentary salmon sushi and sashimi; the fish was melt in your mouth. The entire dinner was fabulous and I think we counted about 9 different meats through the meal. Everyone rolled out of the restaurant feeling stuffed and completely satisfied with the meal. (Left - The plate of sashimi).

After 2 fabulous weeks in Kenya it was time to move on, though it was very difficult given the warm treatment and wonderful time we had. Unfortunately our flight out was at 4:30 in the morning, so we had to get picked up at 1:30 to make the airport in time. Tim even got up to make sure the cab arrived and that we got off okay. Christine managed about 2 hours of sleep, while I decided to stay up until we were on the flight.

A short 5 hours after flying out and we arrived in the land of the Pharaoh’s. We were met at the airport by a driver and taken to a nice hotel that feels like it should be in the centre of the tourist section, but actually is in an area that is mostly locals.

After enjoying a rest day on Sunday in Cairo and doing a bit of wandering around the hotel, we spent Saturday hitting the tour circuit. Our expectation was that our tour would be in a large bus with hordes and hordes of people. As it turns out, we had a van all to ourselves and a tour guide for just the two of us.

Our first stop was the site of the old capital of Egypt at Memphis, which is just outside of Cairo. The site has a bunch of statues and artifacts that date back thousands of years and included several large statues of Ramses II, who is one of the most prolific in their long history. He is also most likely the biblical ruler at the time that Moses led the Jews from Egypt. (Right - Christine and a large statue of Ramses II).

Following this we visited the site of the most ancient pyramid in Egypt at Sakkara. This is the step based pyramid of King Zoser and is before they started building pyramids with flat surfaces. The pyramid is surrounded by temples, party sites and the home of other pyramids for family and other important people. This particular pyramid dates back to approximately 2700 BC, so that puts it at almost 5000 years old, amazing! (Left - The pyramids at Sakkara).

Our last stop of the day was the most famous of all the pyramids, the ones at Giza. There are 3 pyramids located here, belonging to a father, son and grandson. There are also a number of small pyramids around them for their mothers, wives and daughters. The biggest period belongs to the father and it was originally over 146 metres high and is known as the great pyramid. This one has over 2 million stones in it weighing from 3.5 to 19 tonnes, which is an incredible amount of weight. The sons pyramid is slightly smaller but placed on the apex of the hill, so it looks bigger. The grandson has the smallest of the three. All of these pyramids are in the middle of the city, with a small dessert on the backside and a KFC not more than a 5 minute walk down the hill. (Right - Christine and pyramid #2)

We visited the inside of one pyramid and walked down a deep shaft into the burial chamber of the pharaoh. It is a long way down and the shaft was small so I was bent way over and still scraping my back as we went down. After hiking out we traveled down to the base of the hill and right across from the KFC is the sphinx. This monument has a long and storied history and was believed to grant peoples dreams. One very disillusioned dreamer went and knocked the nose off the sphinx when things didn’t work out. Over the years it was buried up to it’s chin in sand until another pharaoh dreamed beneath it and then unearthed it once more. Later on when Napoleon was around, he decided to spirit off the broken nose. (Left - Hovan at the great pyramids).

Above - Christine at the great pyramids

Today we visited the Egyptian museum, and it is stuffed with some of the oldest most amazing artifacts around. The museum also holds almost a complete collection of King Tutankhamen. Apparently he was a short lived and somewhat useless king, but was made famous by the fact that his is one of (if not the only) tomb that was left intact without having most things stolen from it. The artifacts covered more than half of a huge floor and included chariots, massive boxes of gold, thrones, and the most famous sarcophagus and golden mask. My question is, if this is the amount of stuff that comes out of just one pyramid, what happened to the stuff from the hundreds and hundreds of others? We are talking about warehouses and warehouses worth of stuff, how could robbers and buyers hide that much stuff?

Following the museum we took a trip to the Citadel, which is where Saladin built defenses when Egypt was conquered by the Muslims. Inside the Citadel is the Alabaster Mosque, also known as the Mosque of Mohammed Ali. The mosque was built in the early 1800’s and is very large and ornate, but it is currently undergoing some cleaning in order to bring back some of the luster of it’s original sheen.

After the mosque we visited the Old Bazaar of Khan el Khalili where it is a maze of shops, stalls and merchants. They are pretty aggressive in their sales tactics, but we managed to navigate our way through it without getting cornered into buying anything we didn’t want, or anything at all for that matter.

After a tiring day we enjoyed getting some pizza delivery to the hotel and a quiet evening in. Tomorrow we are heading off to the coastal city of Alexandria to see the sights and enjoy the beautiful Mediterranean.

Best Wishes,

Christine and Hovan

The Big Five

We are a bit behind on blogging (still catching up from), but here is the latest installment from Africa. Enjoy!

We had a short drive on Saturday (Nov 28) morning from Samburu to the Mount Kenya region. Mount Kenya is a very well known mountain measuring just under 5200 metres and one that many people have come from all over to climb. It is also the highest point in Kenya. We, however, just enjoyed the view from the base of the mountain and enjoy it we did. As I said earlier, Chris helped me to plan the trip so I pretty much deferred to his advice and didn’t know anything about the locations or places we were staying. It turns out that the Mount Kenya Safari Club we were booked into is part of the Fairmont hotel chain, and I’m sure most of you know the Fairmont chain, owners of luxury hotels such as the Empress or Banff Springs. (Left - The Mt. Kenya Safari Club)

We arrived at the hotel which sits on a sprawling 120 acre property, which exists inside a much larger animal reserve and at the base of the mountain. The resort room is probably up there as one of the nicest hotel rooms we have ever stayed in, and Christine and I have been in a lot of hotels. The service was top notch and the amenities endless. We had options to take out mountain bikes, ride horses, golf, play all sorts of racquet sports, pools, etc. The grounds themselves were beautiful and they even had a couple of resident dogs that you could take out for a walk if you wanted some company. (Right - Our incredibly deluxe room).

After an incredible buffet lunch Christine and I decided to try our hand at the hedge maze they had on the property. It only took us about 15 minutes to get through it, but apparently some people can spend more than an hour in it. We never did run into a dead end, but when we looked at the map afterwards it looked like there was quite a few. After the maze we decided to visit an animal orphanage that sat in the game park just outside the Hotel grounds. The orphanage was designed to take in abandoned animals and nurse them until they could be set into the wild. It also had the responsibility of managing some animal restoration projects. (Left - In the hedge maze)

The orphanage had a large variety of animals, and one of the staff spent a couple of hours showing us around. He introduced us to an antelope type called a Bongo, which is a species that is almost extinct. The orphanage is trying to bolster their numbers and bring them back from the brink. A number have been sent abroad and they have a sizeable population growing back on the mountain. They have beautiful striped colouring and at one point in time were more sought out for hunting than the Big 5. We also had an opportunity to feed a couple of different types of monkeys as they crawled all over us. There little hands and the way they used their tales to hold on felt a bit weird, but it was fun. We met a giant tortoise who is more than 150 years old, so he just passed into middle age. He was aptly named Speedy and weighed in at 400 pounds. We also got a chance to toss some corn at some pigmy hippos who looked exactly like a hippo but about 1/5 the size. Even so, they still had the massive teeth. (Right - Hovan feeding a monkey).

The highlight of the orphanage was most definitely the cheetah pen, where they held three full grown cheetahs. Apparently Cheetahs are the rarest of the cats in Kenya and both their population and gene pool diversity are very low. We were in the orphanage around the time the cheetahs were fed, and were allowed into the pen to pet them while they were busy eating their food. We were told as long as they had food and we didn’t step on their tail we would be fine to do so. That still didn’t alleviate Christine’s apprehension, but I just wanted to give them a big hug. The cheetah fur is so incredibly soft that you would be hard pressed to find a plush toy that feels nicer. (Left, Right - Hovan and I petting a hungry cheetah).

In the evening, when we were about to leave for dinner I read that there was a dress code, similar to the Empress Hotel. We were supposed to have on nice shoes and a collared shirt and pants. Unfortunately we didn’t know to bring some nice clothes with us, so the best I could manage was sandals, jeans, and a nice t-shirt. Christine really couldn’t muster much better. I wasn’t sure if we would be denied access to the dining room, but they seemed unconcerned by both our appearances. After a sumptuous plated 4 course dinner we returned to our hotel room just as someone was finishing up lighting a fire in the fire place for us. It was a wonderful end to a very pleasant day.

The next day we were off to our second park, Lake Nakuru, which is near the large centre of Nakuru. Along the way Ian stopped off for a bit at Thompson Falls, which was a waterfall that wouldn’t set any records for size, but was still a lovely sight. The landscape continued it’s pattern of constant variation in moisture content, vegetation and crop types. The Kenyan land has this incredibly rich and bright red earth that stands in strong contrast to the lush green foliage all around. The combination is something that we have never seen before, but makes for stunning scenery in all directions. (Left - Thompson Falls).

At one point we got a flat tire and so pulled over to swap it for another. While we were outside a few vendors tried to sell us some stuff, but they were unsuccessful. Then a small group of children came up to us to watch us. I don’t think a lot of white people stop near there homes and they seemed pretty excited. One little girl kept looking at me and laughing and laughing. I would smile and she would laugh, I would say hello and she would laugh, I would look in her direction or away from her and she would laugh. I am guessing it was the beard she was laughing at, or at least I hope she wasn’t just laughing at me, but it was pretty funny. Then we were on our way once more.

Once again we stayed in a high quality lodge in Lake Nakuru and the whole lodge experience is so much fancier than anything we have done up until this point on our trip that it feels like we are living in supreme luxury, and in point of fact, we are.

While we were relaxing on the bed after lunch and waiting for our game drive we had a special visitor. We had left the door open a crack for air flow. I looked up as the door swung fully open and thought it was a strong gust of wind. There in the doorway was a large baboon, staring right at me with the look of a guilty child on his face. He grabbed our basket that had tea and coffee, etc. in it and took off. I started chasing him and yelling at him. As he got to the end of the lodges he turned around and looked at me. I could see the plastic package of a bright blue sugar packet sticking half way out of his mouth. He dropped the empty basket and scrambled off into the trees. It was quite a sight and gave Christine and I a good afternoon laugh. (Right - the flamingos of Lake Nakuru).

We enjoyed only one game drive in Lake Nakuru, but it is amazing what we packed into 3 hours. The park is made famous by its flamingos, due largely to their numbers. The lake itself has tens of thousands of flamingos and the whole thing is covered in pink.

On our drive through thepark we came across a lot of new wildlife not seen in Samburu. We discovered a large herd of buffalo, and though quite large and not to be messed with they look dorky. They have these horns that go over their head like a scull cap and make them look really dumb. We also came across several rhinoceros, and they are a sight to see. We managed to spot the white rhino, which is the larger of the two. They looked like they were almost as big as the van and their horns looked very large and nasty. They are an incredible specimen and a rare one given all the poaching. I think anyone making a trip to Nakuru will see the white ones, but we were unable to see the shyer and even rarer black rhino. The white rhino grazes out in the open grass, but the black rhino stays in the forest and eats off the tree shoots. We did manage to get very very close to two separate white rhinos along the drive, and thankfully neither of them charged at us. The day also produced our first viewing of hyenas, and they look as unpleasant as their reputation indicates. We also got to see a couple more lions and this time one of them had a massive mane and looked like he was right out national geographic. We couldn’t help but think of good old Aslan. We didn’t manage to get super close, but that’s what the binoculars are for. (Left - Zebra, Rhino & Antelope).

Near the end of the day we were fortunate enough to spot the elusive leopard. He was reclining up in a tree and incredibly difficult to see. The leopard is the shyest cat and they have great camouflage skills. Apparently it is something not too often seen, despite being the most populous cat in Kenya. Still, we got a good viewing of him through the binoculars, but he stayed in the shade and prevented Christine from getting a good picture of him. (Right - Leopard in the tree).

Now for those of you keeping count, between Samburu and Nakuru we were actually able to see all of the Big 5 and they were as impressive as one would expect. On our way back to the lodge Ian took a detour just for some variety and he brought into view of a hippo that had recently come out of the water. It was a large, blubbery mass, but he moved very fast across the ground to get where he wanted to graze. The other animals around him were apparently quite afraid and despite their almost comic appearance, they are incredibly dangerous. Christine seemed to have some special affection for the hippo, so we asked Ian to keep an eye out for more. The evening was quite pleasant and we were treated to a dance from the local tribe before enjoying dinner and heading off to bed. (Right - Hippo down by the lakes edge).

On Monday morning we started a fairly long drive to the Masaii Mara. Though it is not the largest park in Kenya it is the most famous. It is a park that is abundant with animals, has all the big five and is famous for the wildebeest migration. Every year millions of wildebeest migrate from the Masaii Mara Park to the Serengeti Park in Tanzania, and the two parks are only separated by a dubious border of trees and bushes.

When we arrived at the park we found we were staying in yet another fancy lodge, but this time in tents. I was told at the outset that they were luxury tents, but after all the camping we did it was hard for us to believe that tenting could really be fancy. Boy were we wrong. The lodge upgraded us to the Presidential Suite tent, which seemed a bit humorous, but we were rolling with it. The tent turned out to have gorgeous wooden flooring, glass doors, two desks, a comfortable sitting area, a giant king size bed and an enormous bathroom with two sinks, marble and tile floors. The balcony allowed us to recline comfortably in the middle of the forest with great privacy and seclusion. It truly was luxury camping. (Right - Our deluxe tent).

Our first game drive in the afternoon was a wonderful experience, as we managed to spot all of the Big 5 once again. Apparently some people have been here for 10 years and never seen a leopard or maybe even a rhino. The Masaii Mara is incredibly popular, so even in low season there were a lot of vans driving around, and they would radio each other to tell if something important was spotted, so this increased the chances of seeing popular animals. (Left - Elephant and Baby).

When the radio told of a leopard pretty much every vehicle in the park dashed in that direction. We managed to see our second leopard, but again the sun was at his back and we couldn’t get a good picture. He climbed to the very top of the tree, almost as though showing off for the crowd. After climbing down he slipped into the denser brush, never to be seen again. What was really funny was the gathering of about 25 vans at the base of the tree to watch him. Then all of a sudden there was this huge urgency of movement as every van rushed off. We asked Ian what the deal was and apparently there is a $150 US fine for anyone caught off the road and on the grass, which almost every vehicle was.

Above - Leopard leaping down a tree

Later on in the afternoon we were fortunate to see a full maned lion and his lioness just a few feet off the side of the road. They were off from the pride to mate, and we were treated to a bit of voyeurism of the act. We were actually able to see them consummate their relationship but it happened so fast Christine couldn’t even get the camera ready in time to snap a picture. I thought it unwise to tell a huge, lethal, killing machine with massive claws and even bigger teeth that he was a little on the “quick” side and not really a tender and thoughtful lover. I kept those thoughts to myself. (Right - Lion relaxing in the evening sun).

Later in the afternoon we were treated with a sighting of our very first wild cheetah. Despite being known as the fastest animal on earth it was just lounging around like all the big cats seem to do most of the time. Shortly after seeing the cheetah we spotted a pair of the very elusive black rhino’s, hanging out near the edge of a small forested area. The elephants and buffalo are abundant through out the park and very easy to spot. We were also treated to large herds of hartebeest, topi, zebra and many other grazers. (Left - Pregnant Cheetah).

The next day started off well as we spotted a giant male lion sitting only a few feet from the road. He had a huge golden mane and looked as majestic as the king of the jungle should. Later in the day we spotted a pride of lions that had 9 cubs, 4 females and strangely 3 males. The males were spaced out about 80-100 metres from each other, so maybe the outside two were looking for an opportunity to take over. The cubs were so adorable and tiny. There were two batches and 5 of them were a bit larger and the other 4 were incredibly small. They were all very playful with each other and the females, though the moms didn’t seem to move a lot. The little ones kept crawling all over, suckling and enjoying the sunshine. We had them all to ourselves for about 20 minutes before Ian radioed it in to the other drivers. (Right - Lioness & Cubs).

We got to see a group of ostrich start running across the savanna and are they ever ungainly looking birds, especially in motion, but they can run really fast. We were also treated to the largest elephant herd we have ever seen. I could count 35 elephants that were visible and judging by the number of separate sections in the forest that were shaking violently, there must have been more than 40. They included lots of playful little ones, plenty of watchful moms, and a few humungous males that towered above all the rest. (Left - Ostrich)

At one point we got another flat tire and so we had to get out of the van to help Ian swap it over. He asked if we were nervous about being out of the vehicle, but we both felt totally comfortable. This was of course after having a quick scan for snakes. We did know that we had stopped only a couple of hundred feet from some lions, but were still nonplussed.

That night, after dinner, we were treated to a dancing and singing performance of the Masaii warriors. They put on a nice little show and we were amazed at how high they can actually jump. If you watch a movie called the “Ghost and the Darkness” it is about Kenya and you can see the Masaii doing a battle dance before they start to hunt a lion.

On Wednesday Ian treated us to an all day game drive where he took us to the far side of the park. We requested of him to try and let us get closer to hippos, see a baby giraffe and spot another leopard. We were driving for not more than 10 minutes when he found us a pair of cheetahs, relaxing in the shade and looking for some possible prey. About 20 minutes later he found us another cheetah in an open field. Judging from her distended belly, she was very much pregnant. (Right - Baby Giraffe).

We drove on for many hours and passed through field after field that was filled with thousands and thousands of grazers. The zebra and topi seemed to cluster together so that the zebra can take advantage of the topi’s keener senses. The buffalo and gazelle roam in the same group as well, but the topi try to stay away from the wildebeest, which is a tasty draw for predators.

At one point we came across a reclining lioness in a bit of shrub smack dab in the middle of a field. Hundreds of grazers were walking her way, and normally she would be spotted as she did not have much cover. We changed that by interposing the van between her and the other animals, and she could definitely sense it. You could see her coil herself up, ready to chase the nearest prey when it came close enough. Sadly the wind shifted and they caught her sent to keep clear of her bush. So instead of hunting she settled on an afternoon snooze. (Left - View of the fields).

In the early afternoon Ian spotted a leopard in a tree, and as soon as we got right underneath the tree it started to move. It went higher for a second, thought better of it and then dropped out of the tree. After staring at us from the bushes for a few seconds it took off, leaving us once again without a good picture.

Later on we spotted a large herd of giraffe, including some cute babies. Then to the river for a viewing of about 50 hippos as they lazed on the beach. A number of them were underwater and kept reappearing to show only their head, take a breath and disappear below. Apparently they can hold their breath for up to 4 minutes. They shared the river with the biggest crocodiles that we had seen to date. (Right - Hippos).

We enjoyed a picnic lunch in a field with all sorts of animals, and under the shade of an acacia tree. The view allowed us to look into nearby Tanzania and it made for a very relaxing lunch break. On the way back to our side of the park we crossed paths with more buffalo and elephants and even spotted a mother and baby black rhino for a moment, before they hustled off into the bush. That was our third sighting of the Big 5, so we had an excellent guide and a little luck.

We had a pleasant and uneventful evening and a safe ride the next day back to Nairobi. A nice evening back and once again we were being spoiled and entertained by Chris and Sherene and present to enjoy the incredibly wonderful hospitality of Tim and Lisa. (Left - Hovan and I in the van).

Cheers to one and all,

Christine and Hovan

Armeni Jewelers

In the sense of shameless family promotion I will point you all to an article about my families new jewelry store that just opened in Victoria. The Times Colonist article is very well done and the timing is perfect to remind everyone out there that Christmas is just around the corner and that Armeni Jewelers is THE place to get your gifts.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Jewelry+shop+proud+history/2297521/story.html

Cheers,

Hovan & Christine